My Millbrook Experience

I was...

... just a scrawny, socially awkward freshman transitioning from a small charter school of about 300 to a huge high school of about 3,000. Being scared and excited at the same time, I was determined to succeed and ready for the new challenges ahead of me for the next four years. Back then it started out as a dream, but then it became a reality with a big bump in the road along the way. That dream was to play my favorite sport under my high school logo, baseball. I had started playing the game at a later age that anyone else. Began playing competitively at the older age of 13 years old in the Raleigh Parks and Recreation league, North Wake, and one year on my middle school team. I did not know anything about baseball until I was 13, so I practiced every day to transform myself into a serious ball player. I was not a big kid, only weighing around 110 pounds going into my freshman year. I was not the least bit athletic, but I worked hard to turn myself into an athlete. Baseball was a sport I wanted to pursue in high school, despite the odds being stacked against me. Going into fall workouts of freshman year, none of the coaches or players knew me. Every other freshman played on the Millbrook baseball summer team prior to the school year, but I didn't try out so I was at a disadvantage from the start. Determined to prove I belonged in the program, I attended nearly every work out, community service, and fundraising event for the team. When February came around, all that hard work did not pay off the first time and my name was not called by Coach James when the final JV roster was announced. Although I was devastated and disappointed at the time, I needed to put a lot into perspective. I had another year to prove I belong. Training day and night by myself and with my dad, I wanted to prove everyone wrong and make baseball an opportunity for me my next three years in high school. 

Sophomore year was here. Over the summer I had many long talks with my dad about whether I should give baseball another shot or whether I even had a chance to make the program at Millbrook. Last year after tryouts ended, I thought my baseball dreams did as well. In the end, I decided to give it another shot and go through the whole process again. During that off-season I made myself better through playing North Wake again and knew that this spring it was going to be different for me. Fall workouts began in September and five months later I made the JV team as a sophomore. It was a fun season and made myself and my family proud. My doubters still needed to be put to rest. Junior year came and being on the varsity team was still not a guarantee. After showing out my summer ball season for Millbrook going into my junior year, many people still did not think I would make the varsity team. I was said that I was too skinny, too small, I didn't throw hard enough, and I didn't have what it takes. Knowing myself, I had to keep my eyes on the prize and not let anything stand in my way. While facing the rigorous challenges of the IB program my junior year along with making myself a better ball player, it became an emotional roller coaster for me. But after everything I have been through since beginning my baseball career in Parks and Rec, I made the Millbrook varsity team my junior year. A few years back, even I never thought this moment would come, but I did it and could have not been happier. My junior season, I was a part of the greatest team in Millbrook baseball history, as we made it to the Eastern Regional Finals for the first time since 1993. That playoff run was one of the best memories I will ever have in my life and I will not forget all my teammates that season who I shared the journey with.

There have been many ups and downs in my four years here at Millbrook High Schools. There have been a lot more negatives than positives unfortunately, but many great things lie ahead of me. I was accepted to Wingate University this past July. I was so overjoyed knowing that I was already going to college before my senior year even began, probably accepted to a college before anyone else. Being in the IB program is what caused me to receive a big scholarship from Wingate, so although it was stressful, challenging, and the reason for my sleep deprivation, it paid off for me in the end. My grades in high school were never the best, but I gave it my very best effort. and that is what will carry me in the next chapter of my life at Wingate University and beyond. I am excited to major in sports management at Wingate and pursue a career as a baseball scout which I have wanted to do since I was a little kid. As I finish up my current senior baseball season, I am determined to make the Wingate baseball team. My hard work, drive and commitment can hopefully carry me into furthering my baseball career, Through all the challenges and hardships of my four years here, they will be times I look back on later in life and memories I will cherish forever.

Walt Whitman's Notebook

Step 1: I thought this notebook was very interesting and unique, but yes it was very difficult to make out the words he wrote. The words and phrases he wrote in the notebook seemed to be very concise and straight forward. The notes he wrote in his notebook could be his thoughts on the world around him, since that is what a lot of his poems were about. They could also been ideas, titles, or topics for his poems and what he was going to write about in the future. There are a few drawings at the end of the notebook that could either be self portraits of himself or sketches of ideas for characters in his writing. There are also a few marks on a select few pages with a stamp of a symbol that I can't quite make out, but he might of stamped his notebook himself.

Step 2: After looking through Whitman's notebook a second time and seeing what he actually wrote, it made me question Walt Whitman even more as a person and what was going through his mind most of the time. On the beginning page he wrote down different addresses of people he was close to, possibly as a reminder note in case he forgets the addresses in the future. On many of the pages in his notebook, he writes a lot about President Abraham Lincoln and his encounter with him outside of a hotel in New York, Whitman only briefly saw him and described the expression on his face as deeply sad. He then interestingly creates an imaginary conversation between him and President Lincoln. It is possible that he wrote up a dialogue that he wish he would have had with Lincoln that day and wrote it for his own amusement in hopes of one day publishing this fake conversation. Evidence of this is Whitman writing down potential titles on page 3 in hopes of publishing the dialogue he has written. Whitman also jots down a lot of his thoughts on religion and seems to have many strong feelings on it. He also seems to emphasize the word "libertad" a lot in his notebook as a way to describe the union. Throughout his book, he jots down side notes, thoughts, and ideas for future writings. Also writes down his opinions on the Civil War and the world around him.

Blog Post #13: The American Dream

The "American Dream" is the grand idea that every citizen of the United States of America should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, dedication, and ambition. It has now become a widespread term to describe the typical American way of life. No matter what social class, ethnic group, or what one's "wealth" is; everyone living in this country should have the same opportunity to accomplish their dreams and aspire to what they want to be in life. To me, "wealth" describes how much money or possessions a person has. Good wealth or bad wealth is determined by how much or how little money a person makes. In America, it should not matter what a person's wealth is because of the American Dream and everyone having the same chance to do what they want in life.

Americans have very mixed attitudes toward wealth and poverty. According to a national poll conducted by National Public Radio (NPR), the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University's Kennedy School asked nearly 2,000 Americans 18 or older, "Which is the bigger cause of poverty today: that people are not doing enough to help themselves out of poverty, or that circumstances beyond their control cause them to be poor?" The responses were fairly divided  as about 45 percent of these college students said that poverty had to do with certain circumstances, whether these circumstances were issues with employment, housing, natural disasters, family situation, and so on. Others said that poverty is caused by the person or family "not doing enough" to keep their good wealth. They feel like they were not actually doing enough to help themselves. The poor were more likely blame the "circumstances" more than themselves for their financial hardships. 

As far as my attitude towards this issue goes, I feel like a lot of poverty has to do with a lack of motivation or hard work. I know this may seem like a stereotype but it may be true. Some may lack ambition or the motivation to get ahead or succeed in what they want to do. Another circumstance could be that they did not receive a proper education and do not know how to maintain a good lifestyle and were forced into poverty because they did not know how to handle themselves. It's an unfortunate situation, but sadly it's reality. Poverty is everywhere and there are varied causes and circumstances to this, but it's why a good education and having a lot of motivation to work hard to succeed is so important.  

Metamorphosis Translations

#1:As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

Diction: The author makes a couple of key word choices in this sentence. Notice how he uses the word "insect" instead of bug. Insects and bugs are not quite the same thing because insects can fly and bugs can't. He also uses the word "transformed" instead of a word like "changed" to give it a more dramatic effect.

Syntax: The order of the sentence was fairly clear. It made sense and showed that he was dramatically turning from a human being to an insect that will change his life forever.

Imagery/Details: The words "bed" and "dreams" give the reader a picture inside their head that this scene is taking place at night in his bedroom and the word "gigantic" provides details to make the scene seem like a big deal. 

Structure: The structure of the sentence includes some unnecessary phrases such as "awoke one morning from uneasy dreams" which is not needed because it's irrelevant to mention his dream when he is transforming into an insect. 

#2:Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug

Diction: In this translation, the word "changed" is used instead of "transformed" which gives it a less dramatic effect and makes the switch from human to insect less intense. The author also uses the word bug which is a less sophisticated way of using the word "insect."

Syntax: The order of the sentence is a little more confusing while putting "uneasy dreams" before "one morning" as maybe a way to foreshadow or give a prelude to an upcoming event in his life.

Imagery/Details: There a lack of details in this sentence. Mainly adverbs and adjectives are used.

Structure: The sentence is much more concise than the previous one. It's very to the point and less dramatic. This was mean't to be a dramatic, life changing scene and this translation makes it sound very casual.

#3: When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.

Diction: The author uses "troubled" to describe Gregor's dreams and discuss his internal conflict. The author also uses the word "enormous" to emphasize how huge his transformation is.

Syntax: The order of the sentence is pretty much the same as translation #1 except different words are used.

Imagery/Details: "The enormous bug" gives the reader an idea or picture of how big his bug self became.

Structure: Very straight forward. He awoke from his bad dreams and changed into a huge bug.

#4: One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.

Diction: The term "monstrous vermin" makes his transformation sound very cruel and unpleasant like he is an evil creature.

Syntax: Starting out with the phrase "one morning" is just a specific way to address when this is taking place and live in the exact moment it happens.

Imagery/Details: There are many descriptive words use to make the scene sound scary and frightening such as "agitated" and "monstrous."

Structure: There are many breaks in the sentence with commas which make the sentence less coherent and more confusing. 

How does the word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery shift in each affect meaning? Is one more effective than another? Why? What does this exercise bring up about the difficulty of reading translated texts? How do different translations effect the tone of the sentence?

Word choice can affect the meaning in many ways. When an author writes a text he/she chooses the words that they best believe will convey the message they are trying to send. Sometimes the author explicitly states the meaning of the text by using the specific meaning of words. Other times the author uses figurative language and connotative word meanings which suggest an underlying message to the reader. 

Syntax in literature gives the sum of the words meaning in a way that simply listing words never could. Syntax influences literature in a big way, because without proper syntax literature would simply not exist, nor would many of the subtleties that academics and casual readers alike love to ponder. In looking at syntax in literature, writers can use it in numerous ways to convey different meanings and provoke certain responses. As for sentence structure, it helps the sentence become more clear and concise by putting the words in a particular order that makes sense for the reader. Imagery creates meaning in many different ways. such rhetorical devices can help the reader understand what is being said by emphasizing certain phrases with figurative writing.

My Practice IOC

Here is the link to the audio of my IOC:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0utan58tTX0SWMwOEwwcGN2dE9nMXpKU1Vwa3BwZUxNNTdZ/view?usp=sharing
(Copy and paste it)

Chosen passage: Page 80-81; Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Criterion A: 8
I show a very good knowledge of the text by providing background and the impact the text has on the rest of the novel. I provide commentary of the events occurred during the text and use specific evidence to back up my claims.

Criterion B: 2
I did not really use or identify any literary devices. I need to work on a lot learning how to identify them better.

Criterion C: 3
It was decently organized. I paused a lot and was stuttering at times. I had a really long, awkward pause at the end. Need to work on that as well.

Criterion D: 3
I was fairly clear. A little stuttering as stated before.

Blog Post #10

FREEBIE!!!!

Twitter Storytelling Ted Talk

Andrew Fitzgerald: Adventures in Twitter Fiction

Summary: In this talk, Andrew Fitzgerald discusses for around 11 minutes about how storytelling has evolved in our society and in the Digital Age. He starts off in his talk going back to the 1930's when radio was the "new" way of storytelling when everyone gathered around this new technology and listened to the speaker on the radio tell the story. Now about 90 years later, there is a whole new way to tell stories and that is through the power of Twitter. Nowadays, authors can tell stories digitally. These authors have their own Twitter accounts and tweet out their story line-by-line through each individual tweet, therefore; the followers of the account that are reading the story can read the story line-by-line by simply refreshing the page and following the story through each tweet. Twitter users can also follow different characters speaking during the story in order to get different perspectives of the digital story being told. Fitzgerald argues that this the way our generation can watch stories as they unfold line-by-line, It will create much more suspense and get kids in our age to read. 

Point of the Speaker: 

• Ethos- Andrew Fitzgerald uses his expertise and great knowledge of the social media tool of Twitter in order to advertise a new way for Twitter and journalists to work together to share their creations. Fitzgerald happens to be a member of the News and Journalism Partnerships team at Twitter, so he is very credible in this subject he is discussing. He seemed to have great knowledge in what he was talking about with the way he presented himself and the examples of accounts he used when talking about Twitter storytelling.  
• Pathos- Fitzgerald does not appear in his talk to appeal to any particular emotions of the audience. He mainly just discusses these new ideas in a normal, informative tone. He does get the audience laughing in some parts of the talk, but other than that, he is pitching his new ideas in a casual tone. Emotion would not really be an effective strategy in this talk to get sway the audience to his side. Having Twitter has an all-new way to tell stories is a subject that is hard to draw any emotion from. A person will either decide to listen to stories the old-fashioned way or the digital way. 
• Logos- In order for Fitzgerald's audience to get a visual representation of what he was talking about, he puts up screenshots of these story-telling Twitter accounts on the monitor and displays authors telling their story bit-by-bit through each tweet they put out, This is the evidence he uses in order to prove that this is indeed the new way for journalists to share their stories for all to see. He also uses a pretty neat example of an account that tweets out World War II events that happened on the particular day the tweet is sent. It is formatted like a newspaper article. There could be possible show of bias throughout his talk since he does in fact work for Twitter and this is his way of advertising the new thing that Twitter can do. He presents these ideas in a very strong, convincing way and seemed to really captivate the audience. I was very engaged as well. This new way of sharing stories is just how the future is shaping to be.                                                  

Personal Relationship: This talk immediately caught my eye when I saw the word "Twitter" since I am an avid user of social media and I thought it would very interesting to see how story-telling and Twitter can relate to each other. I was wondering how it was possible that these two different topics can work with each other, but as the talk went on, I was very fascinated by what he was talking about. It was very cool and really funny how stories can be tweeted line-by-line and Twitter users can read them be refreshing the page. These tweets come out at a normal reading pace and it builds up suspense for the reader to know what is going to happen next in the story with each individual tweet. Very, very awesome.